How long did you wait before starting chemo after surgery?

[shel28]

Good news today. I saw the surgeon for the first time after radiation and the tumor has shrunk completely. All that is left of my original 3 cm tumor is an ulcer. I'm very happy. Now I have to wait til after surgery to see if my lymph nodes are clear. Originally at least 3 were cancerous. My question is how long after surgery (low anterior resection) did you start chemo. I'm not seeing my oncologist for a couple of weeks and I am trying to get an idea of what to expect.

[seussfan]

I had surgery on March 5th - 8 inches of my colon, 15 lymph nodes (I also had a cyst on my ovary so they removed it, my ovary and my fallopian tube)....my oncologist is waiting 6 weeks from the date of my surgery for my first treatment.

He has planned my first treatment to be on Tuesday, April 17th. However, I have had trouble with my incision and they have had to open it in three places and a nurse comes to my house to pack the wounds and what-not. They want the wounds to be totally healed before I start chemo - so we are hoping that that happens

[suzieh]

Congratulations on your good news. I started Chemo 3 weeks after surgery. Both oncology opinions were consistent with starting that quickly. No one wanted to wait longer than 4 weeks for sure. If you are going to have Avastin, they can add that in at 6 weeks post-operatively. The sooner the better is a good motto.

[missjv]

hi,
well congratulations on your good news thats great! i started chemo right away i had port put in on a tuesday and started chemo the next day. i did not have any surgery before chemo except port placement i had a colonoscopy which removed the cancerous polyp so i started chemo right away my 1st chemo i did not have avastin but the 2nd one i did cause port area was healed well and then had 5fu, oxaliplatin, and avastin which worked great my liver lesions shrunk 70% and then off to liver resection and i decided to have sigmoid part of my colon removed as well since thats where the nasty polyp grew. i am now on 5fu, irinotecan or campostar until june.


missjv

[Carolyn JB]

I had my surgery to remove the tumor on Jan 17th and my first chemo on Feb. 26th. there had been some discussion about trying to do a lung biopsy before starting chemo but then I got a cold and it would ahve added atleast 3 more weeks on before I could start chemo so we started chemo!

Carolyn

[RobinS]

I had a colon resection November 8th, CT scan in early December, port installed December 6th and chemo December 11th. 8 down, 4 to go!
Robin

[LA8]

From what I understand Adjuvant Chemo should be started within three months of the surgery to be effective.

[ASTEPHENS33]

I had stage III colon cancer. The oncologist said that I could start three weeks after surgery, but I wanted until 5. I felt physically stronger. He said that field trials for the drugs I was taking had people starting by week 6, so anything before then he supported.

[pjpeace]

That totally ROCKS!!!! Congrats!!! I had my first surgery at the end of June and started chemo early August. Then after chemo they waited 6 weeks due to the chemo (it would've been only 3 if it was the typical 3 chemo but they used Avastin too so since it's a newer thing wanted to make sure that didn't interfer with my healing).

Best of luck to ya!!!!